SAO PAULO, Brazil — An American nun who spent decades fighting efforts by loggers and large landowners to expropriate lands and clear large areas of the Amazon rainforest was shot to death Saturday in northern Brazil, authorities said.

Dorothy Stang, 74, was shot in the face three times near the town of Anapu, about 1,300 miles north of Sao Paulo in the Amazon region, federal police officer Fernando Raiol said. The early morning attack came less than a week after Stang met Human Rights Secretary Nilmario Miranda to report that four local farmers had received death threats from loggers and landowners.

Last year, loggers accused Stang of inciting violence in the region and supplying weapons and ammunition to local people, a claim her family denies.

Stang, a native of Dayton, Ohio, had lived in Brazil since the early 1960s and worked in the region for more than 20 years. She was headed to a meeting with local peasants when her group was attacked, police said. No one else was hurt.

Two suspects have been taken into custody, police said.

Stang’s niece Angela Mason, who lives in Dayton, Ohio, said her aunt had told her family there was a price on her head.

“She was basically protected by her status as being an old lady and being a nun. She also recently became a Brazilian citizen, and she thought that would help but it obviously didn’t,” Mason said.